"Hero of Justice?"
When Laws heard the words from Shirou, he was a little surprised, but he didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just a child's joke.
After all, in Laws's view, Shirou was still a child. Although he had the mind of an adult, it was normal for him to act like a child sometimes.
In fact, Laws himself had a childish phase when he was young, dreaming of becoming a hero who defeated the demon king, saved the world, and married a princess.
He thought Shirou's idea was something similar.
On the other side, after Shirou spoke out his ideal, a knot in his heart suddenly disappeared.
He then realized more deeply that he was no longer just Emiya Shirou. In a sense, he was also Servant Emiya.
People are made up of memories.
If you inject another person's memories into an empty body, it can often directly turn that person into someone else.
Conversely, if you erase all of a person's memories, then no matter how deep the memories or how real the thoughts, they will completely disappear, almost as if they have a different soul.
Emiya Shirou, in a deep fusion with the soul of Servant Emiya, inherited a large number of memories from Servant Emiya. Even though those memories were foreign, once they were integrated into his body, they were destined to be impossible to erase.
Even though the original Shirou had given up the ideal of being a friend of justice, at least half of his body now still held that wish.
In that case, he might as well be a half-baked one.
He was not only Emiya Shirou, who could give up the ideal of a friend of justice to protect his family, but also Servant Emiya, who could give everything for the ideal of a friend of justice... Therefore, when he heard Laws mention his daughter Sylphy, Emiya Shirou volunteered to help her, at least to prevent Sylphy from being bullied.
A friend of justice would not allow that kind of thing to happen and would rush to save everything at the first sound of a weak person's cry.
Of course, it is not yet certain whether Sylphy will really be bullied by her peers. Maybe her green hair will not be rejected by the people of Buena Village.
...
Almost three months have passed since Shirou took over the duty of patrolling.
During these three months, his routine was very fixed and hardly changed at all.
In the morning, he replaced Paul in patrolling the village; at noon, he chatted with Laws, who worked as a forest ranger, to further deepen his knowledge of the forest and monsters; in the afternoon, he returned to the courtyard to practice swordsmanship or practice reinforcement magic...
With such persistent training, Shirou's swordsmanship also slowly improved, step by step.
He gradually figured out how to use reinforcement magic and fighting spirit at the same time and discovered that, as expected, when the two were used together, the power of the weapon would increase many times.
Shirou even wanted to use this as a basis to develop his own swordsmanship, such as briefly using reinforcement magic and fighting spirit to unleash slashes that could cut even steel, or using reinforcement magic to strengthen his body, further increasing his explosive power...
Of course, Shirou did not intend to rely on this kind of trickery to become a powerful Swordsman. He would only regard it as a means of self-defense at most.
Since he had already decided to follow the Sword God style, Shirou had already prepared to practice swordsmanship steadily, gradually improving his strength through constant practice.
Because of this, Shirou's speed of improvement was not considered fast by Paul, and it could even be said to be quite ordinary, a little slower than when he was young.
This somewhat relieved Paul, who had been worried about being surpassed by his child, and he regained his confidence as a father and a Swordsman.
...
Shirou finished his morning training, allowing his body to recover from the relaxed state of sleep to a certain state of tension.
Every morning, he did at least four or five sets of sword training, push-ups, and sit-ups.
Since his body had not yet entered puberty, Shirou did not plan to train too hard, so the training was mainly for strengthening his body.
Even so, he felt that his body was now far beyond that of his peers, and he might not even lose in an arm wrestling match with an adult.
"Rudy, I'm going out."
Every morning, before going out to patrol the village, Shirou would say hello to his younger brother, Rudeus.
But the other party kept staying in the attic, with no intention of coming out at all. Only the occasional strange sounds symbolized the fact that there was someone inside.
Shirou and Rudeus had a bad relationship, and even Paul and Zenith could see that.
But the couple couldn't do anything about it and could only hope that time would ease the relationship between the two brothers.
On the other hand, the maid Lilia had been looking for a way to restore the relationship between the two brothers, which in a sense was also her way of repaying Shirou for helping her take care of Rudeus when he was young.
Unfortunately, in the face of Rudeus's near-total self-isolation, the words of outsiders could not reach his heart.
"..."
Confirming that Rudeus in the attic had no intention of responding to him, Shirou could only shrug helplessly, pick up his long sword, and go out again.
He came to Buena Village and immediately met friendly villagers.
The villagers were now used to him, the little knight who came out to patrol every day, and often made all kinds of jokes with him warmly.
After discovering that the village was hardly threatened at all and that there were no monsters, Shirou simply stopped doing too much useless work and instead spent his time helping the villagers with their daily lives, such as helping them carry rice, helping mothers who were taking care of their children alone with some work, and taking care of elderly people in poor health...
Since he had decided to inherit Servant Emiya's ideal and become a friend of justice, Shirou decided to try his best to do things well.
Shirou's actions earned him the recognition of the villagers, and most of them no longer regarded him as an ordinary child, but as a knight just like Paul.
"Thank you, Shirou."
Mrs. Somar had to take care of her children alone because her husband had passed away, and Shirou often helped her carry heavy goods, reducing her burden.
This was just a simple act of help, and Shirou didn't think his actions were anything to be grateful for.
However, Mrs. Somar was very grateful to him and even often invited him to her home as a guest in private, but Shirou refused all of them.
For some reason, when facing Mrs. Somar's gentle gaze, Shirou always had a strange feeling of being targeted by a hunter.
The more gentle Mrs. Somar was to him, the more he felt a chill coming from behind.
Although Shirou himself had no knowledge of dating older women, based on instinct, Shirou gave up on going to Mrs. Somar's house as a guest, refusing whenever he could, ignoring Mrs. Somar's enthusiasm.